[img]96|left|Shachar||no_popup[/img] Dateline Jerusalem — What can be more exciting than getting free gifts from the supermarket, just for doing regular shopping?
Today at the market, when the checker put my check in the cash register, pieces of paper spewed out of the machine. It seems, I was entitled to free gifts. The store manager ran off to gather these goodies to add to my basket.
Of course, none of the items were of any real value. But it was fun anyway. I received a carton of cream cheese, a serving tray, and a box of Kleenex.
Bizarre but useful gifts.
Unusual but normal for Israel.
In the past, I have received an ice cream cake, clothes pins (most people in Israel do not have dryers, so they need these colorful plastic clothes pins to hang their clothes on clothes racks or on clotheslines outside the windows of their homes and apartments), a package of napkins, a bottle of wine, cheese, crackers, cookies, honey, boxes of fine chocolate candy, wine glasses, a plastic juicer, a 12-roll pack of toilet paper, a jar of pickles, loaves of challah bread, a beach chair and an inflatable mattress!
Then there are the gimmicks.
Keep Adding Them up
For example, if you buy a certain amount of groceries, for one shekel more (approximately a quarter in the U.S.) you can get a number of items sitting around the check-stand, like cookies, fruit, even a mini-frying pan.
If you buy specific items that are on sale, you can accumulate “stamps” to fill a card, similar to the old S & H Green Stamps or Blue Chip Stamps of 50 years ago. When the card is full, you become eligible for camping gear, small kitchen appliances, dishes and a variety of items.
I must admit that not all the markets have such giveaways. Some sell vacuums, microwaves, toaster ovens, regular ovens and TV sets. I even bought a large screen digital TV at the pharmacy, and the pharmacist delivered it to me on his lunch hour.
Besides the supermarkets, there are small mom-and-pop corner grocery stores, butchers, fruit and vegetable stores, fish stores, and of course the shuk (bazaar) with its open air stalls. So much to choose from and so little to spend!
The best part of all is that everything is delivered to my home. I just walk to the store, shop, and have it delivered later.
Life is good in Israel.
L'hitraot. Shachar.
Shachar is the Hebrew name of a California-based attorney and former Los Angeles County deputy sheriff who moved to Israel 2 1/2 years ago.
